Building My New Room

オットは有休消化のため３週間半の冬休み中です。そんな冬休みに、元建築業者な義父の助けを借り、地下室の一角のブロック塀むき出し、コンクリ床、天井のまだない部屋を完成させる作業に取り掛かっています。
私は普通に仕事なので、隣の部屋で静かーに仕事してます。
ちなみにこの部屋が完成したら、私の部屋になる予定！
地下室とは言え、裏庭に面しているこの部屋はいわゆる地階なので、小さな窓が一つあるだけの今の私の部屋よりずっと明るくて出来上がるの楽しみです。

（不動産業者が家の売り出し用に魚眼レンズで撮った写真なので実際より広く見える）
"Before" photo taken by the realtor with a wide lens prior to our purchase of this house.

The Man of the House and his father have been working on finishing our basement. This is my office-to-be.

The wall frame is up.

Beams and joists are up. This is a walkout basement so I get a french door to the backyard.

My current office is next to this room, towards the front of the house, which is more of a true "basement" and there is only a very small window so it's very dark (hence the blurry sewing pictures). My new room will have 11 recess lights!

Jalie 2212 Kid's Half Zip Pullover

５歳児用のフリーストップを作りました。
先月オットに作ったフリーストップと同じ型紙だよ。この会社の型紙は、幼児から大人までサイズの範囲が非常に広いのでとってもおトク。
日本でも放送しているらしい「パウ・パトロール」というアニメのラブル君です。

I made yet again Jalie 2212 half zip pullover. I made it for the Man of the House last month, but this time, it's for a 5-year-old. This is actually the first time I benefited from Jalie's wide range of sizes. This time, I cut a size J.

The fabric is a Paw Patrol print fleece. Since "Rubble" the bulldog was so big, I pieced the center front and side front together, and center back and side back together to make a nice big panel to feature Rubble. I also pieced together the lower sleeve and top sleeve piece together. I was not careful enough to arrange the sleeve piece so the exact same Rubble featured on the center front also appears next to the zipper, half chopped. Oh well.

I think I am getting better at the zipper application.

I fudged the grain line a bit so that I can have the "Rubble" goes across the back neck. I mean, it's fleece, the grain line doesn't exist, does it?!

And of course the second it hit the floor, Dog nested on it.

Swoon Belle Baby Bag with Alice

先日作ったおむつ鞄の型紙で、もう一つ作りました。

アリス模様のこの布、かわいすぎで切るのもったいない。

I made my second Belle Baby Bag from Swoon with Alice in Wonderland fabric design from Rifle Paper Co. (Cotton + Steel fabric). 

The fabric is cotton/linen blend canvas with a bit of metallic gold paint. It feels soooo nice and it's soooo cute (and also soooo pricey and sooo narrow). However, the scale of the print was way bigger than I expected. Alice, especially, was way too long and I almost changed my mind making it into this bag. Because of the large motifs, I had to fussy cut a lot. It was painful to leave so much scrap. I had my first version on the cutting table for comparison so that I could picture the print placement better.

I ended up adding a seam for the exterior pocket so that there would be one Alice centered in one pocket and also other motifs featured in the other side without getting anybody's face chopped off. The seam is positioned at the inner fold of the pleats so nobody will see it.

I used the oxford poly canvas for the lining again, and used light blue marine vinyl for the accent. Since Soft & Stable made my previous version too bulky, I opted for fusible fleece this time for the main panels. Foam piping core keeps the bag's shape pretty well.

 I added a small rivet for the interior slip pocket divider this time.

Since the 10 mm purse feet were too small on the blue skull version, I chose 12 mm this time. Still small but that's what I had.

I followed the instruction for the centered zipper this time, but I tucked in the lining fabric away from the zipper teeth for the interior.

 

The key lanyard in the side pocket.

After I attached the bottom panel, I realized that I forgot to attach the D-ring connector in the side panel. I had already trimmed the seam allowance and burned the edges of my lining fabric (to keep it from fraying) so I had to unpick a small section of the side panel and inserted the connector. I sort of forced it shut and topstitched it down. The seams are horrendous there but hopefully non-sewer would not pay attention to a side panel...

I tried out the "stroller clips" in the closet.

I looove this fabric. I have enough fabric to make another bag (I got lucky end-of-the-bolt extra few inches) but I have to think really carefully what to make with it. Something that has large enough flat space to showcase the print. Hmmm. 

Star Wars Apron

スターウォーズの新作、日米同時公開だったのね。私はあまりスターウォーズファンというわけではなし、シリーズの中で唯一面白かったのはローグ・ワンだけなので映画自体に興味はないんだけど、スターウォーズファンのコスプレぶりを見るのは好きです。

子供用エプロンを作りました。幼稚園児用なので、首のとこはゴムで、腰紐はマジックテープで着たり脱いだりが簡単にできるようになっています。
反乱軍のロゴをビニール布でパッチワークでつけてみました。

To be honest, I'm not a big Star Wars fan. Don't kill me. I never watched it as a child so I don't have the nostalgia or the attachment many people develop. The only movie that I liked among the series is Rogue One, but it is a spin-off so does it still count? What I do like, however, is watching Star Wars cosplayers. Their creativity and enthusiasm is very inspiring.

Anyway, I made an apron for a 5-year-old-to-be. He has been saying for the past year that he would watch Star Wars when he turned 5.

I cut a Rebel logo out of a vinyl fabric. I don't have a fancy computerized cutting machine so it's a good ol' X-Aacto knife method.

The apron is fully lined (the fabric is pretty thin) and it has a front pocket. I cut the pocket fabric to perfectly pattern match, but then I patched the Rebel logo onto the fabric I cut for the lining so all the pattern match effort was totally in vain.

Since this is for a toddler, the neck strap is elasticated and the waist tie is Velcro'ed. I had never made an apron before, so it was fun sewing this tiny apron.

Blue Skull Swoon Belle Baby Bag

お気に入りの骸骨模様で、鞄を作りました。
型紙はSwoonという鞄の型紙を主に扱うところのBelleというおむつ入れ鞄です。
一応これは練習用として作ってみたんだけど、もう自分で言うのもなんだけど結構あっぱれな出来で、大満足です。

I made a bag and I am totally in love with it. This was a muslin version so to speak but it turned out so well.

The pattern is a Belle Baby Bag from Swoon.

My main fabric is a blue skull canvas. I have had this fabric for five or six years now so I'm so glad I was able to make something I really like. Lining is a oxford weave poly canvas, kind of like Cordura, but without any back coating. The handle, piping, and accent was made of white matte vinyl.

I interfaced the skull canvas with SF101 and added ByAnnie's Soft and Stable. However, I think the Soft and Stable was a bit too much for this fabric combination and it feels a bit too bulky inside especially with the rather heavy duty poly canvas I used for lining.

Not included in the pattern, but I added a key lanyard in the exterior pocket.

The exterior pockets are pleated at the center front.

Piping added. I used a foam piping core so it keeps the shape of the bag very well.

The main panel has a slip pocket inside. I added a zipper pocket, initially for birthing the bag (the pattern instruction is for drop lining), but later realized that the zipper opening (7") was too narrow to birth the entire bag. So I birthed the bag from an opening I had kept unsewn from the bottom panel attachment of the lining, then use the zipper pocket to finish sewing the birthing hole right-side-together, then closed the pocket bottom to finish.

Lining has the exact same side pocket as the exterior pocket, which is very three-dimensional.

Exterior without the bottom panel.

The pattern comes with a shoulder strap and two wrist straps that you can wrap around the stroller to hook the bag on. I did not make the wrist straps.

The side pocket will fit a water bottle (if the bag is not too full).

The interior.

I guess the key lanyard can also work as an anti-pickpocket/anti-bag snatcher device.

I love making bags. It feels so good when it turns out exactly how I wanted and I don't have to think about fitting. It's a bummer that I don't really have anywhere to carry this bag to.

Blue Calla Clematis Wristlet #3

すっかり人にあげるのに定番となりつつある「クレマチス」という名前のポーチをまた（1回目は茶色のタータンチェックで、2回目は青のタータンチェックで）作りました。
ハンドメイドって書いてある金具をまとめて買ったので（中国から送られてくるからさ、1か月ぐらい待つのよ、届くまで）つけてみました。
メインの布は、この前タートルネックを作ったケーブル柄にキルトされてるニット生地です。このコンビ、とても私の胸をつらぬいてくれるので、もう一つ自分用に作りたいかも。

Blue Calla's Clematis Wristlet has become my go-to pattern for a small handmade gift. (I have made a brown one and a blue one before.) I really like the pattern and I really like making it.

This time, I used the quilted knit I used for my Simplicity 8738 dropped shoulder turtle sweater. As I mentioned in that post, the fabric was kind of special to me because I bought it at the Knitting & Stitching Show in London, so I could not throw away any bits of the leftover fabric. Clematis uses very little fabric for the main part of the exterior body, so this was a perfect project.

The accent part and the strap is a textured vinyl in pearlescent pink.

The lining fabric was a pink colorway fat quarter bundle from Art Gallery.

I bought a bunch of "handmade" metal labels and they had just arrived in time, so it made it onto the Clematis. I really like the whole look and I might have to just make one more for myself.